Crystal Reports "Sucks"

re: Crystal Reports "Sucks"

php_guy — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 20:45:09 GMT

I would rather develop a report from scratch using php, MySQL and HTML/CSS. HONESTLY, it would get done faster and be much more manageable.

re: Crystal Reports "Sucks"

anonymous — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 01:11:00 GMT

Crystal Reports is complete garbage.

It's almost an insult to garbage to say that.

One thing that really ticks me off is a popup I get from this POS which states "Award winning support!".

Yeah right, first of all the only reason they could pretend to make the claim is from the vast amounts of support they have to give just to make the claim that they have a product in the first place.

Secondly the "Award" is a yearly affair they get from the same magizine JavaPro. I don't know JavaPro, I never read it. But I can promise you that I never will either. If JavaPro is selling these "Awards" to just any moron on the street then they can't be a trust worthy source.

Here are some alternatives to Crystal Reports:

Open Office

A free printer driver

All kinds of open source programs

A $15 printer driver

Active PDF

Every single one of these is 1000 times better than Crystal Reports.

re: Crystal Reports is...

ST — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 20:19:52 GMT

Okay, I'm not going to say it "sucks".

I think it is "okay with potential" but with so many "freaking quirks" it is so painful to be almost useless without a devotion of a lot of time to figuring it out.

Before I forget to ask, WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES? I really want to know.

I've used ColdFusion's ReportBuilder, and it is "okay but not as powerful", but with "way fewer quirks".

+++++

I started with Crystal with ver 4.

Then 4.5, and 5.0.

When they had it working on IIS 1.0, it was simple and helpful.

Then came 6.0, 7.0, which I missed, and then 8.0, 8.5 and 9.0.

They started changing the object model, or creating new ones. Its like every version had a new object model, and some new fangled DLL or component to use instead of the one you just used to using from the last version.

I missed 10, and now have the chance to revisit it at 11.

But quite frankly, as "potentially useful" as it could be, I'm tired of it "quirks". If I can switch my company to something simpler that works, I will. BUT what is there?

We are NOT going down the .NET road.

And I would prefer to get off the Microsoft road completely too, which is why the ColdFusion report builder looks good to me.

But is there anything else?

re: Crystal Reports "Sucks"

Jportelas — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:30:53 GMT

I think you should count me on the "I better find something better than Crystal" side. It´s been quite a pain to deal with all the problems it puts in my way everytime I want to develop a report, I only use it when need it to be "printable", cause it seems one of the only good thing it´s got.

re: Crystal Reports "Sucks"

indentured1 — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 12:26:28 GMT

I used to hate CR back in the v8 days. We were forced to implement it via ASP ActiveX garbage and it was terrible. More recently I was tasked to use it in a ASP.NET environment & was scared. I took one look at the bundled version in VS and told my boss that they *had* to buy the standalone. Why? The standalone product is SO much better. So we coughed up for CR XI r2 Developer. Anyhow, we implemented it on our web & it went suprisingly well. Why do I like it? Because we can get the business folks trained in how to use it & they can write their own damn reports & publish them on our intranet site for the rest of the organization to run. Empowering your customers with writing their own reports means less time for me and my crew having to write them. I'd say that if you hated it, try the latest Standalone version. You'll be suprised. On the sucks side, it's WAY too expensive IMHO.

re: Crystal Reports & SPSS

KWs — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:55:43 GMT

Does anyone know if you can access data in SPSS through Crystal XI? I am relatively new to the product (Crystal that is) and am still on the fence as to what "crowd" I am in, but these blogs are singing my tune! Any help you have to offer would be greatly appreciated.

re: Crystal Reports "Sucks"

TK — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:02:36 GMT

I CANNOT USED NESTED SUBREPORTS IN CRYSTAL, YET MSACCESS ALLOWS ME TO DO THISS???????????? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH CRYSTAL SUCKS, MOST OF THE TIME

re: Crystal Reports "Sucks"

Mahesh Chand — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 19:54:54 GMT

CR SUCKS. 110% Agree. I've been using "unfortunately" crystal reports for many years now and I've not seen any worse product than CR. Not only it has horrible UI (throws me 10 years back when I started VB 3.0), functionality and it's performance.... every thing just sucks. We really need a good product out there..

Bill's House O Insomnia : Comment of the week - Sql Server Reporting Services vs. Crystal

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 05:47:43 GMT

PingBack from http://msmvps.com/blogs/williamryan/archive/2006/09/27/Comment-of-the-week-_2D00_-Sql-Server-Reporting-Services-vs.-Crystal.aspx

re: Crystal Reports "Sucks"

William — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 05:27:11 GMT

Actually, we're idiots and we don't realize the minimal functionality. What kind of a33hole comment is that? I guess anyone that disagrees with you is either an idiot or uninformed. Well, instead of getting into a freestyle battle, let me just respond. The fact there are 250 items means zilch unless you need those features. I'd honestly *love* to see your list b/c if you even know of 250 features in Crystal then you are fairly well versed in it and I suspect you're not nearly as strong in SSRS. A week evaluating it huh? If you know 250 features of Crystal, and have spent a week learning SSRS, could it possibly be that the many of your shortcomings are more about your lack of knowledge than about product difficiency? Personally, I spent two weeks at Microsoft developing the new Business Intelligence exams and with two full weeks dedicated to nothing but it, I can tell you we had a long way to go. That's conjecture so I'll concede the point if you can post 20 substantive features that are truly missing - as opposed as you not knowing how to get there. But screw all that for a minute. I can list at least 500 things I can write in C# that Crystal can't do. Does that mean my C# skills exceed that of crystal? If so it's nice to know b/c I must be a real bad a55. More features doesn't in and of itself mean superiority. By your reasoning, a fully loaded Yugo would be superior to a vintage Rolls Royce b/c it has more features. I'll concede it's a highly individualized thing, if you need those 250 features then you have a point to some extent. However you don't touch upon the quality differences in the features that both share. If SSRS does 10 things which we do all the time much better than Crystal and the other 250 features cited aren't something someone uses, they SSRS is better for them. It doesn't make that person an idiot or ignorant. But let me ask you this, when you say there's at least 250 features lacking, are you talking about an actual feature or a way of doing something? If it's a matter of being able to do something with a GUI or some product specifc method, then that doesn't mean it's missing necessarily. Considering the extensibility of SSRS, I'm at a loss to find anything 'missing' in the sense it can't be done. Another thing that I'd point out. SSRS is what version? Crystal is what version? The fact a new product can even provide 1/2 the features of something so much more mature speaks volumes. However I'm not conceding product deficiencies by that statement, just pointing out that even if it were true, for a V1 product to even come close to a v11 product is prima facie proof of comparative superiority. Test SSRS v1 against Crystal v1 (or hell, v8) and there's no question SSRS is comparatively much more powerful. I don't believe there's 250 features difference in V11 but I'll wait to see your proof. Now, to put some perspective on something. Report writing is beginner stuff. You don't need to be a programmer to do most reporting and in many cases, you can be an expert report writer with only a minimal understanding of programming. I despise Access but having a Crystal guy snob as Access guy is a serious case of the pot calling the ketlle black don't you think? I don't think having Report Writing skills makes anyone 3:33t enough to snob anyone. Anyway, here's what I propose. Post 20 of your 250 items. Since you already have your list - this shouldn't be anything more than a copy and paste job. I'll openly challenge you on this. If I can't do all 20 with SSRS, then I'll post front page on my blog that you're right and I'm wrong. Time permitting I'd like to take a shot at all 250 if you're willing to post them. And honestly, I'll eat crow if I'm wrong. And that's me claiming I'll do all 20. IMHO, even if I only got 18 or 19 of them, that would put a big dent in your claim of superiority but that's another story b/c I don't think you can name 20 let alone 250.

re: Crystal Reports &quot;Sucks&quot;

SSRS SUCKS MORE — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 20:21:08 GMT

Either you guys are idiots or you have never used Crystal and don't realize the minimal functionality that SQL Reporting Services offers. I have spent the last week evaluating SSRS and am greatly dissapointed. I came up with a list of over 250 items that SSRS could not do. As for all you Access reporters, your probably the only people to ever purchase Microsoft's "Bob" product.

My god there are others!!

Dave — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:50:21 GMT

I was beginning to think I was just a thick twat and couldn't make it work. My god I couldn't agree more with 90% of the comments on this website. I have used Crystal for many years now and with each subsequent release, I have hoped things would get better. Ha ha - instead they got steadily worse first of at 8.5 in some attempt to get a load of license revenue they invented the mysterious APS server some sort of confusionware which makes previously working websites not work and imposes an annoying licensing limit, which you can buy your way out of by selling your company / house.. Then came version 9 - well in an attempt to improve our 8.5 RDC component based reporting system we (stupidly) upgraded to version 9 at a cost of around 20,000 (ouch). This software ended up on the shelf / still it makes a handy bookend, i probably could have one made from 24 crt Gold for the same money.. Now, I must be a twat - because despite all my previous experiences I recently "upgraded" to version XI - straight out of the box, guess what, it doesn't work. Joy and rapture. I am now going through an agonisingly painful "support" call to try and resolve. Well done BO by the way for making this the most complex piece of middleware in the world - Are you sure you can't manage to squeeze a few more services into the next release 13 in total !!. BO Thank you for wasting many hours of my life titting about with your crap products... My advice, don't touch this software. You may as well slam your b*llocks in the fridge door as the results of using this software are similar. You have been warned...

My god there are others!!

Dave — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:39:19 GMT

I was beginning to think I was just a thick twat and couldn't make it work. My god i couldn't agree more with 90% of the comments on this website. I have used Crystal for many years now and with each susequent release, I have hoped things would get better. Ha ha - instead they got steadily worse first of at 8.5 in some attempt to get a load of license revenue they invented the mysterious APS server some sort of confusionware which makes previously working websites not work and imposes an annoying licesing limit, which you can buy your way out of by selling your company / house.. Then came version 9 - well in an attempt to improve our 8.5 RDC component based reporting system we (stupidly) upgraded to version 9 at a cost of around 20,000 (ouch). This software ended up on the shelf / still it makes a handy bookend, i probably could have one made from 24 crt Gold for the same money.. Now, I must be a twat - because depite all my previous experiences i recently "upgraded" to version XI - straight out of the box, guess what, it doesn't work. Joy and rapture. I am know going through an agonisingly painful "support" call to try and resolve. Well done BO by the way for making this the most complex piece of middleware in the world - Are you sure you can't manage to squeese a few more services into the next release 13 in total !!. BO Thankyou for wasting many hours of my life titting about with your crap products...

re: Crystal Reports "Sucks"

Eric — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 17:43:07 GMT

CR does suck. Type the word DISAPPEAR in their knowledge base and you can over 300 hits. You could probably think of more words that would generate even bigger hits. The fact is, CR was developed then bought by an entirely different company. Either their programmers suck (which I doubt), or their management is crap. F CR.

re: Crystal Reports "Sucks"

IHackedMyDoghead — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 18:08:53 GMT

Well, I just used it for the first time - a productivity tool, HAH. Took me half a day to add the visuals and 5 minutes (literally) to write the logic. Would have been 30 minutes to spit out the whole page as a string of HTML. Give me "for (int i=0; i<6; i++)" any day instead of this visual crap - I've been doing that since I was 13 and I'm 49 now, works every time and when you tell people it'll take 30 minutes to do, it will instead of all day.

re: Crystal Reports "Sucks"

Ben — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 09:02:25 GMT

I agree with Dave: MS Access reporting is far superior to CR.

I've been in correspondance with CR to create a multiple series scatter chart; something a 12 year-old might need to do for their science homework. Their help docs are useless; providing only a dictionary definition of a scatter chart: patronising AND useless.

The support person said creating a mutliple series scatter chart "may be possible to do, but would have a fairly complex and lengthy work around", and referred me to the CR "experts", who would produce the workaround for a consultancy fee.

"the world's leading reporting tool"! Right! There are 12 year olds everywhere laughing...

AVOID CRYSTAL REPORTS AT ALL COSTS: - Your livelihood and sanity may depend on it!!

re: Crystal Reports "Sucks"

livid — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 23:09:55 GMT

Need therapy, using Crystal now. CR is about as useful as dogshit. Plain and simple. It's no better than dogshit. This ***-ass product needs to be tricked into doing anything useful. Shame on all responsible.

re: Crystal Reports "Sucks"

duh — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 20:10:44 GMT

oh wait. i'm not finished. my favorite thing comes to changing underlying datastores.

say for instance, you want to change it from a table to a sproc. no problem. but what if there are two tables and you want to use one sproc (or two for that matter)... crap. 1000 times slower.

ok... but it can be done. there is a way! completely redo the report and this time use a sproc as the underlying datasource. (when you delete the existing datasource instead of doing the mapping thing, it deletes whatever is on the report) ... yeah!! no problem, after i get done doing that crystal, mind if i slop through someones spaghetti code that you practically forced them to create? didn't think you would mind.

*actually i heard there was another way to more easily and more better change the underlying datasource: use crystal reports prior to version 9 or 8.5 or something. hey thats even cooler crystal. let me go look around for somene that kept their older version since it works better.

duh!

re: Crystal Reports "Sucks"

duh — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 20:05:48 GMT

i have worked with crystal off and on for awhile. at first i sort of liked it, then i thought it sucked for awhile.

finally i have been able to really dive into it, working with it from many different angles. converting older reports that someone else did for instance where they create 5-6 reports that all did the same thing into 1 report with parameters to do the same. I have gotten to do some push reports (ado .net data set ) of some reports that used to be pull reports so that i can make the solution asynchronous and more responsive.

now i feel pretty heavy weight with the product, and i can say with confidence and authority,

the product suX!!!

what a pain in the butt. what a piece of crap that always breaks with slightest thing. You inherit a report and you think, hey this programmer really sucked, why did they create 6 reports instead of just making it do more with some parameters that switched the behavior. then you go to do it yourself, and you find out why. because there is no way of doing it. because it is just shy of being actually programmable.

love the interface by the way (reminds me of flash) where you have to chase the spaghetti all over the place to figure out what something is doing. hey, i see this formula is being used. where? another formula? on the actual report itself. oh, there is no easy way to tell? no problem crystal, i will just spend the rest of my day going through each possibilty, manually checking.

haha! and the push report. ahh! what a joke all the work, and ran into so many other troubles, the worst one is still not solved and is just ignored as far as i can tell:
"The request could not be submitted for background processing."

cute. funny thing is, the original report which was crystal also, still runs just fine, just not the cool new push one, that has this fine error in it even after all hot fixes applied.

i also like the various bugs that are hard to explain. like when you go to add a text field to a report and it crashes the environment. thats fun.

what else? oh i guess that about covers it.

i agree that the access report was a lot smoother and worked better. have not tried sql reporting services yet.

just wanted to vent. not really a choice because they already have so much here in crystal , but i will definitly not recommend doing further work in it.

crystal, you guys suck. please don't tkae that personally. :)

re: Crystal Reports "Sucks"

Dave — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 04:59:48 GMT

Hahahaha brilliant. I totally agree - CR sucks big time - it always has and always will. I have had to use it on and off during contract work for the last 10 years and every time I use it I vow 'Never again'. It has always been a buggy fragile peice of crap. HOW it ever got past version 2 will be one of the enduring mysteries of the universe.

The other enduring mystery is why Microsoft never got round to detaching the MS Access reports from the Access engine and made it a standalone reporting tool. It has ALWAYS been a better reporting tool than CR. Strange...

Shaun- sorry buddy, CR is <b>BAD<b>, but I'd still take CR over a day in Ikea ANYTIME!!!

Crystal Reports "Sucks"

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re: Crystal Reports is...

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re: Crystal Reports &quot;Sucks&quot;

re: Crystal Reports & SPSS

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Bill's House O Insomnia : Comment of the week - Sql Server Reporting Services vs. Crystal

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re: Crystal Reports &amp;quot;Sucks&amp;quot;

My god there are others!!

My god there are others!!

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